We Came After
by Gryph Korval
Summary: The story of Shizo one of the genin that graduated from the Academy the year after the Rookie 9. Mostly OC centric though canon characters do play a large part. Slight AU. Mostly canon.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **I Do not own Naruto or any of the places or people represented in it. Asuka and the nameless red head are mine however.

**A/N **Hello and welcome to We Came after, my first ever fanfic. This thing was born of way to much caffeine and free time and my intense dislike of the way Kishimoto has taken the story recently. Also I'm not particularly fond of the three main characters so while I don't plan to bash them I'm not planning on overly focusing on them.

**The Beginning**

Or the First chapter of boring exposition.

The village of hidden in the Leaves is a village of orphans. This is not to say that all of the village is orphans. The third great shinobi war left many children without parents it's true but what happened after truly made orphans everywhere in Konoha. A Bjuu attack, specifically the nine tailed fox called Kyuubi no Kitsune by some. The Kyuubi no Kitsune's attack on Konoha left such devastation that there wasn't a single person in the village that didn't have at least one person they knew killed. The most notable orphan from the attack was of course the infant that the Kyuubi itself was sealed into by the Yondaime hokage at the cost of the great ninja's life. While the most obviously affected by the Kyuubi's attack that boys story was not the only one affected. This is the story of another whose path was changed by the attack.

The hours after the Kyuubi's defeat had been announced as well as the Yondaime's death were filled with what ninja remained uninjured digging through the rubble in and effort to save those who still lived. Someone somewhere was in charge since the searches were organized with each squad searching a section. In one particularly ruined section four shapes moved carefully the three males and one female ninja carefully searching the rubble.

Every ninja in the rescue squad wanted nothing to more then to fall down and sleep for a month straight, but the monsters attack had ended and the search for survivors wasn't over yet. This particular area held little hope for successful rescues though as it had been almost totally devastated. What few buildings remained standing had whole floors missing in some cases. Others collapsed as they were approached.

All in all it was a particularly hopeless task for the shinobi that were recovering from the loss of their most beloved leader. So it was understandable that when the team's leader spotted a clump of red hair he assumed the worst. "Not another one…" he muttered in a drained voice. He picked his way over to were he spotted it in the rubble and suddenly felt hope swell in his chest. The way the rubble fell had neatly sheltered the woman leaving her relatively uninjured, when he spotted the slow rise and fall of the woman's chest he shouted "Get a medic we have a live one here!" hearing these words his team exploded into action one dashing toward the medical tents at top speed while the rest joined their leader in carefully pulling the unconscious woman from the rubble that shielded her. By the time this had been done the runner that had been dispatched to the medics had returned with a doctor and a collapsible stretcher.

The medical professional swiftly formed a ball of green chakra and scanned the woman's body with it checking for injuries. Finding that she was safe to move he gestured toward two of the ninja and swiftly the woman was placed on the stretcher and taken to the cluster of tents that was serving as a field hospital, since the more permanent ones were either damaged or full to bursting with injured and refugees.

As the two ninja arrived a medic waved them over and proceeded to do a more thorough check of the woman. "Hrrrm severe head trauma, vitals steady but faint no immediate danger though." Double checking to make sure the woman's head injury wouldn't kill her in the near future he made a note on her chart and directed the two rescue nin's to take the red haired woman to one of the large bed filled tents acting as wards for the injured. After gently laying the woman on a cot and informing the harried nurse in charge of that particular tent of her new patient the two began dashing back to rejoin the rescue efforts.

The smaller of the two turned to her larger male companion. "That's the only one we've found alive in our section, but I still feel like the whole search wasn't a complete waste now." the young kunoichi and just made chuunin and was trying to put the best face on the most horrible experience in her career so far. The older man gave a mental shake of his head. The poor girl wasn't ready for this in truth none of them were, but at least the older ninja were more mentally prepared for the shock. In a way he admired the way she was holding up and trying to be positive, heck she almost managed to cheer his jaded ass up.

"You should visit her when she wakes up." he said forcing a grin. It was meant as a poor joke really so he was surprised when the teenage kunoichi announced. "Yup I will. Gives me something to look forward to after the m-mission." she turned toward him a grin on her face her brown hair whipping in front of her face for a moment were it escaped from the strange hat she'd attached the plate from her hi-ate to instead of the traditional band. The haunted look in her eyes filled with unshed tears told the truth though, she was grasping at anything to distract her from the horrors of what had happened and the duty she still had to do.

"Well Asuka lets get done so we can rest and you can bug that red head, put a good word in for me while you're at it I could use a date." Asuka's snicker seemed to echo through the deserted streets.

Asuka was numb as she walked through the tent city that acted as the hospital and refugee camp all in one. All the digging through rubble and searching had only yielded more dead to be added to the tallies for her team. The only survivor they'd found had been the red haired woman on the first night. This was why she was weaving her way through the tents that held patients in search of the woman. She hoped that talking with the woman would make her feel like all the work and bodies of the last few days had been worth it.

When she arrived at the tent she'd helped bring the woman to the first thing Asuka noticed was that the medics had her on an IV of some clear fluid, and she was now dressed in the typical hospital robes. Reading the woman's chart out of morbid curiosity the brunette was shocked to learn that the woman she'd saved was in some sort of coma and that the odds of her waking up were practically zero. Reading further she was further surprised to learn the woman was pregnant. Apparently the medics were going to try to keep the mother alive long enough for the child to be born. Asuka hung the chart on the end of the cot and stood looking down at the woman numbly. All the work, the hope when they'd found someone only to have it crushed as it was revealed to be another casualty, she'd clung to the fact that they'd at least saved one person in there section through it all.

Asuka stood there for she forgot how long just watching the small rise and fall of the woman's chest as she breathed. A gentle hand on her shoulder started the kunoichi out of her reverie and she glanced over into the concerned eyes of one of the nurses who spoke in a quiet voice. "Are you a friend?" Asuka just shook her head. "I'm part of the squad that rescued her, the chart says she's a Jane Doe?" the nurse simply nodded. "Could you bring me a comb and a camera? We can at least give her child a nice picture if nothing else." the nurse just smiled and went to collect the items the chuunin had requested.

Ending A/N

Well there's the first chapter and I'll try to have the second one up soon. Hopefully once I get past the kiddy stages the story will pick up some. I haven't truly decided on a gener yet so that will most likely change though I do plan for action and violence so I'm rateing M for safety.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** Yay for chapter 2. Now we get to meet my victim*cough* Main protagonist...

Any tips you folks have would be quite helpful really I seem to have trouble finding a nice format that's easy to read... oh well.

I don't own Naruto or any of the characters therein but Shizo's mine.

_'thoughts'_

"speech"

**A Little Later**

Or

Swords, Cats, and Nap time.

Nearly eight years had passed since the Kyuubi's attack on the village and things were back to normal. Well as normal as anywhere that had ninja walking on walls and breathing fire was anyway. One of the larger changes was a new law that had come into effect shortly after the attack. There had been a large loss of shinobi in the attack as well as civilians resulting in many children being orphaned. A large number of these had been declared wards of the village. This lead to the Village council and the newly reinstated Sandaime Hokage agreeing to a policy of all orphans raised by the village being recruited into the ninja program to help pay back the cost of there care. The Sandaime was reluctant to agree to this since he was in essence condemning the poor kids to a life of death and battle, but he knew something had to be done to rebuild Konoha's forces. Even if it left a bad taste in his mouth. His only consolation was that he often got to personally talk to the orphans, many of whom thought being a ninja was an exciting prospect. These short meetings brightened the otherwise gloomy feel of the forced conscription. It was during his relaxing stroll through the village on his way to one of these meetings with one of his future shinobi hopefuls that he heard a shout ring out across the busy street.

"Tora-chan! Get back here this instant!"

A small boy with red hair and black stripe like marks on his left cheek dashed down the street, his mismatched eyes, one a bright emerald green the other so dark it looked black, glinted with glee as the yells of the Orphanages caretaker, an old lady called Nanny Mio, reaching his ears as he desperately fled to avoid that ban of his young life.

Nap time. A whole hour where they wanted him to hold still of all things! Such a thing was reserved only for the worse criminals by his reckoning, and he had to take one whether he was good or not.

Hearing another shout of "Tora-chan come here NOW!" he hollered over his shoulder. "My _name_ is Shizo! I don't know who this Tora is now leave me alone Baa-chan!"

Of course while he was yelling this he wasn't paying attention to the street ahead as he ran headlong to escape his horrendous fate, so of course he crashed into something. Bouncing off what he'd run into he fell back onto his rear. Or he would of if what he'd run into hadn't reached out and gently caught him. Proving that it in fact was a some_one_, and not a something, which meant he'd mostly likely have to apologize.

_'Well shit'_

Shaking his head to clear out the cobwebs he looked up at the person that he'd ran into. It was an old man wearing red and white robes with a hat shadowing his kind face. Smiling brightly the urchin greeted the kind faced man with a ringing "Hi there old man what's your name?" which earned him a smile and a chuckle.

"Most call me Hokage-sama. I take it your name is Shizo-chan?" The boy stared at the genial man for a second on awe before exclaiming "Whoooooaaaaaaaaaaa, didja know that you have the same name as the Strongest ninja guy? Do people ever get you two confused? It'd be hard I bet since strong ninja's are all scary and your really nice." the boy prattled "Hey Hokage-sama whatcha doing? Are you all on your lonesome? If you are I could walk with you and keep you company." he finished with a cheery grin.

The hokage, one Sarutobi Hiruzen, just smiled as the friendly boy babbled at him, amused, and secretly pleased, that the youngster thought he was to nice to be the village leader. By now the elderly lady that was in charge of the red head and his fellow orphans and caught up to her truant charge and between wheezes apologized profusely to her leader. "Forgive me _wheeze_ hokage-dono _wheeze_ I was putting the children down for a nap when Tora-chan here made his escape." she reached for the red head only to have him hid behind the hokage while giving her as evil a glare as he could muster..

"Now Tora-chan" she spoke in a stern voice "Stop pestering the Hokage and come take your nap." "NO!" the child hollered "And my name is Shizo, not Tora!"

Sarutobi was fighting the urge to chuckle at the youngsters antics. "Now now, why don't you like the name Tora? It's goes nicely with the markings on your face, and I'm sure Mio-san put a lot of thought into it." Mio's gratitude at the hokage's words of support was easy to see, she was rather fond of the scamp, and thought the name she'd given him when he was a baby was cute. The elderly woman didn't know where this Shizo nonsense had started, it wasn't a bad name per say, but, she wasn't going to humor the boy. So it was expected that she'd frown and make another grab at the elusive red head as the child yelled at the top of his lungs. "Tora's the name she gave me, but it's not _mine_."He stated putting special emphasis on the word as he again avoided his caretakers grasp and glared again at Mio from behind the Hokage.

Glancing down the hokage noted that there wasn't any hostility in the boys gaze just stubbornness. "Well then Shizo-chan while I'm sure the fresh air and running is good for you old folks like me need to sit and rest some times." the old man grinned as he scooped up the tyke garnering a surprised squawk from the small red head.. "Now then I was on my way to the orphanage anyway so we'll discuss this there if that's fine with you?" the old man began briskly striding toward the orphanage with Mio following in his wake sputtering something about how it was beneath the hokages dignity to be seen carrying a small boy. Said dignified worthy just rolled his eyes and grinned as his small passenger stuck out his his tongue and contorted his face at Mio.

When the trio had reached the orphanage the Hokage paused and pulled a small slip of paper out of his robes and after perusing it for a moment turned to Mio. "Well Mio-san turns out my running into this youngster was fortunate. He's the one I was coming to have a talk with." At the slight widening of the old woman's' eyes as her expression darkened as she realized just what could of brought the leader of the villages ninja forces to the orphanage he gave a sad, apologetic, smile. "May I use your office?"

"O-of course Hokage-sama."

The old woman led the village leader to her office before politely opening the door and bowing him inside. "Take as much time as you want Hokage-sama. And Tora-chan. You be on your best behavior." The last part was aimed at the red haired urchin that was now standing by the hokage holding a fist full of the old man's white robes. He frowned at the use of her chosen name for him, but her stern glare and close proximity meant that he'd obey… for now.

After Mio had shut the door and moved down the hall the hokage pulled her chair around her desk so he and the young boy could sit facing each other with out the bulky piece of furniture between them.

After a moment of silence as the venerable man eased himself into the chair the young boy spoke up. "So what'd you want to talk to me about hokage-sama?" Eying the red head and taking special note of the gleam in the youngsters eyes the hokage responded. "Well it's about your future Tora-chan." the second the hokage had uttered the caretakers name for the boy he realized he'd made a mistake. The boy didn't just dislike the name he _loathed_ it.

"My name is Shizo. Not Tora, I'm not a kitty!" The youngster exclaimed with a glare. Sarutobi hid his amusement at the fervor the boy showed toward naming himself, that and the kitty comment had sparked a memory. Several of the D-rank missions that genin had been carrying out had involved the escape of a cat with the exact same name. Privately deciding to legally rename the boy to his preference the old man spoke again. "Well then Shizo-kun" the previous cutesy suffix really only fit because of the boys' small (for his age) stature and the kittenish quality of his name "I've come to tell you a few things you should know." Seeing he had the boys attention he permitted himself a grin "As you know the village pays for the care you receive as an orphan, well because of this a law was passed stating that any orphan that reached age seven without adoption would be sent to the academy to become a ninja."

Hearing this news Shizo jumped to his feet with a resounding cheer. "YES, this is soooo cool!" Ninja were awesome and no one EVER called them a cutesy nickname or anything like that. And they got cool cloths and could be sneaky all the time, it was his current lifetime goal to escape nap time and nobody made ninja take naps.

After he'd calmed down sufficiently Sarutobi gestured to the chair across from his own. "However, in your case I also have some things to tell you and give you personally." seeing that he'd piqued the child's curiosity he dropped the exploding tag that was the real reason he'd come "Things about your mother." To say Shizo was shocked would have been the understatement of the year. His two tone eyes were about to fall out of his head and his mouth was hanging open presenting a hazard to inattentive flies. The child's jaw worked silently a few times until he managed to make a sound. "W-what?" Sarutobi simply smiled and gestured to the chair. "Have a seat and I'll tell you everything."

Shizo looked down at the picture with a stunned look on his photo showed a beautiful woman dressed in a simple white robe, with long red hair the same intense shade as his own, who appeared to be sleeping peacefully. "T-thats my mom?" Sarutobi smiles at the wonder in the child's voice "That photo was taken right after we found her. She was pregnant with you at the time, unfortunately, we have no clues as to your father's appearance or identity." Noting the slump of the boys shoulders signifying his disappointment at the lack of information on his male parent, the old man continued hoping the rest of what he had to say wouldn't further upset the boy. "We also have no information on your mother other then that photo, she had no identification on her person, and we found no record of her in the village archives. However." Sarutobi grinned hoping that what came next would distract the boy from what he'd not found out. "We did find one thing with your mother that I'm going to give to you today. An inheritance of sorts if you will." seeing that both of child's mismatched eye's were locked on him he slowly reached into his robes and pulled a scroll out of his robes. Unrolling the scroll with a practiced flick, Sarutobi grinned before forming a single seal with one hand and molding some chakra. The was a poof of smoke and the hokage was holding a sheathed sword in his hands.

Shizo had never seen a sword shaped like this one and even the hokage couldn't remember the last time he'd seen one similar. The weapon in question was straight rather then curved, and while overlarge for the youngsters current size, once he grew into it, would be easily wielded with one hand. The blade was as unusual as the rest of the sword as the hokage proved when he drew it partially from it's sheath.

The sword was double edged rather then single edged like the katana's and ninjato's that were more common in the village. The metal of the sword was also strange. Rather then just being uniform in color the blades metal looked tarnished with flowing blotches of black mixing with the shiny gray of steel. Shizo was forcibly reminded of the markings on his own face and grinned.

Sarutobi noted where the boys gaze was focused. "Rather unique isn't it? The metal isn't steel and the black spots aren't tarnish or damage according to the smith I had look it over. Rather it seems that it's creator mixed black metal in with the gray somehow. Also the metal is of a variety that can channel chakra. It's a most valuable weapon." sliding it back into it's sheath and resealing it into the scroll Sarutobi presented the rolled paper to Shizo. "And now it's yours."

At that very moment Shizo made a mental vow. 'I will become a great shinobi like my mother was and I'll carry her blade with pride.' The hokage noted the determined look in the child's eyes and relaxed. A ninja's life wasn't easy and it was often cut short, but if the boy kept that determination he stood a very real chance of being successful. With that thought in mind Sarutobi went to find Mio to ensure Shizo got his academy supplies, and with a mental wince, to prepare the paperwork for the lads name change. He was fairly sure he'd get no peace otherwise.

(several days later)

The shrill sound of an alarm caused the redheads mismatched eyes to fly open as he groggily slapped his alarm silent. Peering around for a moment he blinked as he realized why he was up early on this particular day. "I'M GONNA BE A NINJA!" he hollered as he jumped out of his bed and rushed over to his small dresser. Swiftly dressing himself in a plain black t-shirt and a pair of shorts that were the same color except the seams which were white. He grabbed the bag that he'd packed his school supplies in and rushed to the front door of the orphanage only to be halted in his mad rush by a hand grabbing him by the strap to his bag

"Now now T-*cough* Shizo-kun you are not leaving without breakfast." came the stern voice of Granny Mio. Shizo looked up at his captor "But I don't wanna be late or I'll get in trouble and I wanna be a ninja and they might teach me a cool jutsu and I'm not even hungry!" at this moment the small boys stomach decided to give off and rather large growl."Uuuummmm how about that breakfast then?"Shizo chuckled weakly while grinning up at the orphanages matron who just rolled her eyes and took him to the kitchen.

Several minutes later, after being fed, Shizo went running out of the front door of the orphanage and took off toward the the ninja academy with a hollered "BYE BAACHAN!" Mio just stood in the door way and shook her head knowing that in a couple years that little scamp would be living on his own and it would be rather quiet around the orphanage, and though she'd deny it she'd miss that rascal.

Shizo arrived at the school a few moments later with a huge grin on his face. Looking around he spotted a lot of kids around his age, a weird looking boy wearing sunglasses, a girl with sea green hair and a boy with brown hair that looked at the others like they smelled were those that stuck out immediately in Shizo's mind. Rushing into the school he quickly found his classroom and looked around before sneaking over to the teachers desk with a grin a mile wide on his face, acting quickly he grabbed a paper clip from the teachers desk and unfolded it before threading it through the fabric of the chairs seat with one of the ends sticking straight up like a needle, suppressing a chuckle he found the seat with his name on it and sat down while fighting down his laughter. The teacher was in for a bit of a surprise when they sat down this morning. Shizo planned on having a lot of fun in the academy.

**Ending A/N**

And there we have the significance of the unconscious red head from the last chapter. I hope you all enjoyed the read. Lemme know what you all think.

I swear I'm putting action in this thing eventually...


End file.
